


We're not bruised (they're just party tattoos)

by InfinityIllusion



Category: Bleach
Genre: Angst, Everyone Needs Hugs, Except not really?, Fluff, Gen, Happy Ending, M/M, Pre-Slash, Shinigami are known in the sense that they exist, UraIchi Prompt Challenge #3, Vaguely AU, along with Hollows, and some people can see them, and then there are normal people who pick up any slack left over from the shinigami's work, no beta we die like men, phone fic, superhero au, who are basically superheroes, you can pry parentheses from my cold dead hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-29 09:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19826968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityIllusion/pseuds/InfinityIllusion
Summary: The thing about living so close to death and the dead, is that when you’re not dead in the line of duty, but still rendered more or less useless in the fight against the Hollows, there’s no longer a set place for you.





	We're not bruised (they're just party tattoos)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is mostly courtesy of way too much BNHA fic (aka: I'm not even in this fandom why am I reading this?) and the fact that this author still has far too many feelings about the post-Aizen time-skip abandonment.
> 
> Title and inspiration drawn from Dodie's "Party Tattoos," lines specifically drawn from are from the chorus (title, although the formatting is different), and the following stanza:
> 
> “My mummy said to always wear a coat  
> But it's warm and it's heavy and we're trying to float  
> Don't forget she'll be right when it's three a.m.  
> So shiver, but shiver with a friend”

* * *

It starts, like the end of many a hero’s tale (and, frankly, a fair number of romance novels if you think about it), with a request for self sacrifice.

Ichigo isn’t knocking self sacrifice — it has its place, and sometimes it’s the only thing standing in between a mad man and the world (or planes of existence as are currently known). The thing is, though, that when you’re dead, in the stories, you’re dead; if you’ve sacrificed something the negation of the end of the world as we knew it is enough to salve your physical, emotional, mental and/or metaphorical wounds. There’s none of the watching your friends and family move on without you; none of the lingering pain at now being useless when you only wanted to protect.

(Okay, Ichigo is maybe projecting just a little. Or a lot.)

The bottom line is that stories tend to stop pretty soon after the sacrifice. The day is saved, so all the heroes (somehow) get their happily ever after, the end.

Life as an actual superhero (or the closest thing the world currently has, as far as Ichigo knows) works a bit differently.

There are still the monsters from fairy tales, but only some people can see them. It’s accepted that, yes, sometimes people disappear and return much more bloody and bruised than they left. It’s accepted that half the time gas explosions probably aren’t in anyway related to gas (and if you’re the classmate who’s over at someone else’s house for a project is staring in horror at something in the background of a broadcast, well, that too is normal). The government is trying to cover things up to prevent mass panic, but there are too many people who can see, and too few who can do much more than that.

Years ago, when things first came to a head, there was talk of Shinigami being real and meeting with the Prime Minister, the Emperor, the head of the Ministry of Health and Safety, various people in the government. While subsequent years and skeptics in politics have caused doubt (particularly on how supposedly dead people met with the living), the recording of the meeting is still public, the newspaper articles exist, and there are a number of sketches done by those who /can/ see posted all around the internet.

But the Shinigami aren’t always around, and that’s when the superheroes—okay, they’re more like vigilantes that the police can’t arrest, so basically superheroes, right?—enter.

Most of the time they’re there for clean up or the weaker creatures (“Hollows,” is the term the Shinigami reportedly use for them), but not always.

What is consistent between them is their powers were recognized or established under traumatic circumstances, and that far too many are underage (go figure, teens have more time than adults, and really, the monetary compensation for being a superhero isn’t enough for adults to quit their day jobs).

Affectionally named the 「半神」by the public, 「亜人 」by their critics, and colloquially as “‘heroes” among themselves, Ichigo was (once) one of those putting his life on the line to protect the living. That he was also putting his life on the line to protect the dead still in the plane of the living is not something he really needs — needed — getting out, but it’s still true enough.

The thing is, though, that the mad men still exist, and that heroes are still called upon for self sacrifice, for martyrdom if necessary.

(And sometimes it _is_ necessary and that’s a sad fact of this world.)

However, the thing about living so close to death and the dead, is that when you’re not dead in the line of duty, but still rendered more or less useless in the fight against the Hollows, there’s no longer a set place for you.

If you’re alive and can see, your place is obvious: superhero or otherwise support of them.

If you die, you move on to the cycle of reincarnation, or you turn into a ghost, get konso’d, and become a Shinigami.

If you lose your family, your friends, you return to the fight with vengeance in your heart, or (if you’re lucky) you might find them in the Shinigami’s ranks. (They won’t remember you, but they’re still there, still alive, for a given value of “alive.”)

So there’s Ichigo, phased out from his main goal (protecting his sisters, his friends, the people he can see in front of him when they need it) and profession (superhero-ing) in life.

(Sure, he’s a student, too, but Aizen’s been consuming his life for months now, and it’s hard to compare homework to training so you can help prevent the end of the world.)

His dad tells him to shrug it off, go back to school and do something else with his life (although finding out that his father is a retired hero in the middle of Aizen’s insanity is something he’s still putting off fully internalizing).

His friends give platitudes before they’re swept away in the clean up, running patrols, and filling in the gaps that Aizen left in their ranks and in the people’s sense of security.

His sisters cling, Yuzu more than Karin, who still would’ve seen him if he’d come back as a Shinigami. Neither of them really say anything, and for that he’s grateful.

(He could do without finding out that Karin is planning her own debut, but he can’t tell her no, not without drowning in hypocrisy. 

He leaves her a note, when he finds her various ideas for a code name. 月虹 is his suggestion, even if it keeps with the (unintentional on his part) naming tradition. And if it gives a nod towards their mom’s own ancestry, well that’s even better.

(Ichigo knows that Karin has never been sure where she fits with the lingering echo of Kurasaki Masaki. She has few memories, and Goat-Face makes mom out to be some kind of saint. Yuzu inherited her eye color and hair, but Karin wants something of her, too.))

If he follows her to the Urahara Shouten, the front of their technology and costuming home base, that first time she leaves on patrol, well. She doesn’t have to know.

Getaboushi probably won’t snitch, considering that he walks right up to where Ichigo is watching in the shadows of an alley in front of the Urahara Shouten, as his sister bounds through the air slinging spells and bolts of energy in the distance.

“Ah, Kurosaki-kun. I was wondering if you stop by.”

“Yeah? Why’d you think I’d stop by, Getaboushi? I’m useless to you at the moment.” And the amount of bitterness on his tongue is surprising to him, if not to Getaboushi.

“Hmm, why indeed?”

Ichigo rolls his eyes. “I’m not going to threaten you about Karin.”

Getaboushi’s eyes narrow slightly under his ridiculous hat. “Oh? Isn’t she your—“

“Yeah, she’s my sister. But you did a good enough job with me, and she’s tough. Plus, she won’t be thanking me for doing any kind of threatening on her behalf now she’s her own hero.”

Getaboushi nods along with Ichigo’s reasoning.

“Besides,” Ichigo says pointedly, “if I couldn’t beat with powers, what am I gonna be threatening you with anyways?”

“Well, there’s always the press...” 

“Getaboushi, why the heck are you trying to give me ideas on how to threaten you?” Ichigo asks incredulous. “I know you’ve got different priorities, but seriously.”

Getaboushi, who’s had his fan out and open this entire conversation, abruptly snaps it closed. “Considering your last battle with Aizen, and it’s cost to you, some would not believe you to be in the wrong to want to keep me as far away from your family as possible, to say nothing of getting back at the person who facilitated not just the battle but your loss of powers.”

Ichigo sputters. “Wh—no, who—why—Those people are stupid. I _chose_ to be there. I asked for you help ages ago when I was getting started. I wouldn’t have been able to take Aizen down without your help and training — and Goat-face is the one who told me about the special quirk of our powers anyways!”

Getaboushi holds his gaze for a few moments, the air as tight as an over-tightened bow string, ready to snap. This is also an inconvenient time for Ichigo to remember that, yes, Getaboushi is actually taller than him and pretty built under the flowing layers he insists on wearing (even in the lab, what the hell?), and yes, Ichigo has always appreciated that he never had to hold back with this man, and might’ve, maybe, been harboring something of a crush before everything went to shit.

Instead of Ichigo snapping under the pressure of the moment and his own hormones, the older man removes his hat and bows low (which does not help the hormone problem, _not at all_ ).

“Nevertheless, I apologize for my part in your loss. I will do my best to see that you can remain a part of the community, if I cannot manage to help you regain your powers.”

Which. What?

“Uh, thanks? Wait, how’re you going to give me my powers back? I thought people still weren’t sure where they came from or why they manifested as they did, even if there was some genetic link...?”

“I have my ways,” Getaboushi says, completely serious, even if the words themselves are playful.

Ichigo — he has to look away, because there’s something burning in Getaboushi’s gaze and if this keeps up he’s going to do something he’ll regret. Like maybe give him a hug and never let go, while crying his frustrations out, or tip his hat back and kiss him. Either would be problematic.

(And he remembers that Getaboushi always had a thing for fire and that his power tended to manifest as threads and this is a _bad thought right now_.)

He clears his throat after a pause instead and mutters, “Thanks, Getaboushi. I appreciate it.”

Getaboushi stares at him as he ducks his chin and looks away, letting the silence stretch again.

“Want to come in for tea?”

Ichigo snorts. “Not coffee?”

“Well, it _is_ nearly 5 in the evening.”

“Getaboushi, that’s never stopped you before,” Ichigo laughs.

“Maa, maa, I’m just being polite and hospitable! What kind of shopkeeper would I be if I wasn’t nice to one of my best customers?”

“You’d be you,” and it’s fonder than Ichigo really meant.

Getaboushi quirks his lips in a smile and turns to lead the way back into the shop, and Ichigo’s lips twist unconsciously up in kind.

It’s a start.

~IiI~

(The next day has Tessai finding them partially draped over each other with various notes on combat application technology, communication devices, candy flavors, and some possibly worrying uses for candy wrappers and lollipop sticks scattered about them over the table when Tessai enters out his way to make breakfast. He shakes his head and pulls out a blanket from the nearest closet, kept there for occasions when Tenchou forgets to move his notes to the lab when he starts on one of his numerous creation binges. This isn’t, quite, the first time Kurosaki-san has stayed over for such a reason, but considering the circumstances, Tessai doubts it will be the last. Hopefully they’ll be good for each other.)

Considering this is the most content he’s seen both — and yes, he has seen Kurosaki-san on Tenchou’s monitors — in months, he thinks they’ll be just fine. He’s still not enabling their late nights by making coffee this morning, though.)

* * *

Kudos and comments welcome!

~Fins

**Author's Note:**

> Translation notes (because I need to go back and re-read how to do the hover text):  
> 「半神」(hanshin): literally half god  
> 「亜人 」(ajin): demi-human (negative connotation, yes there's a manga with this as it's title)  
> 「月虹」(gekkou): moon bow/lunar rainbow; homophone to 月光 or moonbeam (guess who's getting that as her hero name were this to continue :) )


End file.
